JWC!

This sadly will most likely be my last update from South Africa! But I hope to give yall a more detailed one when i get back State Side.

Me, Cat, and Devin

So we finally had the JWC, our last time to spend with most of the people we were ministering to. I unfortunately got sick(food poisioning, i think) and I was unable to attend most of the meetings or really spend a lot of time with the guys. However it was still an awesome time, because of this reason, all the men in our Bible study that came to the JWC, confessed Christ and wanted Him as their Lord and Savior, even after understanding the challenge that an easy life is not promised, but a life to the Full! I'm sure this is a fruit of your prayers! It's also encouraging to me that the Gospel goes forth and changes lives even while I was sick. The Lord's gospel is not chained!(2nd Tim. 2:9) All in all I believe we saw around 10 people claim Christ! It is our hope and prayer that they would do nothing but grow closer and close to Him, and make decisions in light of the Word, and live lives that glorify His name, as lights of the world(Matthew 5:16)!

Kevin and Kanye

Tyler and the Doc

Since the JWC, we have been going to the Church here and doing work needed to be done, and have spent two days going into different orphanages here spending time with children and just trying to love them, and share the gospel in that way. One family that runs a childrens home here, does it independently of the government and gets its funds from supporters. This family is actually from Holland, and they just have a heart for these children to grow up in an environment were the gospel is taught! It has really been a great experiencing hanging out with these kids, who have little hope, but receive through the Love of these people who give thier lives to run these shelters! 2nd Corinthians 1:3-4 "3Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, 4who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God."

Our last week on campus!

So this will be our last week on campus! Next week is the JWC camp and the week after that we will be doing mercy ministry! It's going to be bittersweet I know! I have really enjoyed getting to know the guys here and look forward to spending alot more time with the ones who are able to go to JWC next week. Also I finally have a couple of pictures for yall!

This is Majuba, the Guys Resident hall:

This is from left to right: Me, Yandisa, KB, and Jorge my ministry partner:
Yandisa and KB are the two Leaders who are laboring on the floors with us and have had a great impact on a lot of the guys we are ministering to. Pray for them as they continue to grow. It has been amazing getting to know these two boys and their desire to grow and choose the Lord daily as their strength!

These are a couple of the guys going to JWC, that Jorge and I have gotten closer to that are really desiring to know more, be praying for them to be changed by the Lord! Kanye, Mat, Master P, and Kiki. Kanye and I had a great conversation, where I believe he was really challenged and came to a greater understanding of what Christ suffered for us...I was challenged by it as well! By explaing the depths of Christ's pains it was made even deeper in my own heart, I don't know if I have become complacent sometimes to God's love, or am just coming to a greater realization of the depths of it, either way pray that we both would come to a greater understanding of the Depth and width of the Love of God(Eph. 3:17-18) Kiki was also a great encouragement to me. He is not a Christian and is honest about that, yet he wants to learn, so much so that after the last Bible study he wanted to "rent" a Bible to read! We let him borrow one for free, but just think here is a kid in a very very poor country wanting to pay to rent a Bible! Pray that he would not lose this interest! Mark 4:1-8, pray that his heart would be good Soil!

Thanks again! I hope have even more pics next time!

You are also in my prayers!

Daily Decisions!

Hello again!
I hope and pray yall are doing well! I also am thankful for you taking time out of your day to read and pray for our ministry here! I want to first off encourage you to keep praying as it is powerful and effective!(James 5:16b, Romans 5:18-20)

Ministry here is going, This week in our Bible study the message was from Luke 9:23 "Then he said to them all: "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me." We really wanted to urge them to look at the cost verse the benefit, "25What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit his very self?", I am sure this was and is a challenging passage to many of them. Something that some of these men are dealing with is controversy within their family as a result, a lot of their families may still be caught up in Ancestral worship mixed with Christianity, making salvation be by Christ + something, which is no Gospel at all! So pray for these young men that they would really see the cost of following Christ and accept it because of the life that they can have, a life to the full!(John 10:10 "The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.") Tomorrow is the deadline for them to be able to come to the JWC! Pray for their decisions! JWC not only is a camp for them to know more about our Lord, but the hope is that relationships will be built their by this experience in order for them to continue their walk even when they return(Hebrews 12:1-3)! The fear is that if they do not come then those who have made a confession of Christ or are close to it, may be pulled back into the ways of their family and the culture they grew up in!(1 Cor. 10:33-34)

Pray also for the unity of our team! Pray that we would "Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to one hope when you were called— one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all." (Ephesians 4:2-6)

Lastly, we were supposed to be going to Hilbrow to an orphanage to do mercy mission work there. But because of the Xenophobic violence we will not be going there for our safety. But please continue to pray for these people! Instead we went and served food at a refugee camp, were around 600 Zimbabweans stayed and sometimes over 2000 come to eat! These people are living in tents and have very little space to themselves. Going there and seeing such a thing was so surreal! This really brings a greater picture to what Jesus meant when he talks about the harassed and helpless(Matthew 9:36) Especially because many are without a shepherd and again are caught up in Ancestral worship.

Thank you again for your Time and Prayers!